CHAPTER XIX

HOW THE PLOT WAS FOILED.

It was in Dick Merriwell’s rooms that night that Jim and Bill Brady learned the story of what had happened that afternoon. They heard from the universal coach of Canfield’s belated discovery of the blank examination paper marked with Gray’s name. The professor, it was explained, had reported all the men in the course as having passed without having marked a single paper, and Gray had, therefore, received his diploma. But later, when Canfield had gone over the books that contained the answers to his questions, he had discovered the blank pages in Gray’s, and had been furious. He told the dean that he regarded the thing as a personal insult to himself, and had demanded instant action. The dean had had no other course than to yield to the request, and had hastily summoned Gray, at the same time sending word to Dick Merriwell.

Gray had been unable to deny that the writing on the cover of the book was his. But he insisted that he had answered every question, although he could not say how nearly correct his answers had been. The evidence was all against him, however, and it had seemed to be convincing. Certainly the book contained nothing but blank pages now.

It was Dick Merriwell who had made the astonishing, but simple, discovery that had offered a solution. Examining the book closely, he suddenly pointed out to the dean that the cover had been changed. It was a simple exercise book that was used, with blue paper covers, and Dick showed that there were marks on the inside pages of other staples that had been torn out.

“Canfield said that no one could have meddled with the books,” said the universal coach then, as he went on with his explanation, “and suggested that we ought to find the pages that had been torn out. He said that the books had all been put in his room in Dwight Hall, and that the place had been locked up as soon as he left it yesterday afternoon, and not opened again until this morning. But I was able to prove that some one had tampered with the book, because of one thing he had overlooked. He hadn’t washed his hands.”

“Finger prints?” exclaimed Brady and Jim Phillips, together, deeply interested.

“Exactly,” said Dick. “The hands of the man who made the change were dirty, and his finger tips left marks all over the white and blue paper. We got a man from police headquarters who understood the science of those things, and he took an impression of Gray’s fingers. That showed at once that he wasn’t the one who had handled the book, for the marks were entirely different. Then we went at the problem of trying to find other traces, and we found marks on other objects in the room that showed plainly that some outsider had been in there.

“Fortunately, the room had been closely watched, and Canfield could tell us every one who had been in there, or, rather, every one who had had any business to be in there. We got finger-print impressions from all of them, and they didn’t fit the one who had handled the book at all. Both Canfield and the dean accepted that as conclusive evidence that Gray was all right, and the charge against him won’t even have to be made public. He had to miss pitching that game, but he certainly made up for that when he did have a chance.”

“But how about the one who really did it?” exclaimed Brady. “Have you caught him? Do you know who it is?”

“No,” said Dick, more vindictively than any of them had ever heard him speak before. “But he’s left evidence that will convict him as surely as if he had been seen. There’s only one man with fingers that could have made the prints we found—and we’ve got impressions of those that will last forever.”

“All you’ve got to do, then,” said Jim, “is to find the man who fits those prints?”

“Yes,” said Dick, a little dryly, “that’s all. But that’s quite enough, you know. It’s probably some Yale man, but we can’t take the finger prints of every man in Yale. We’ve got to keep our eyes mighty wide open for the next day or two, and trust to the idea that the man, whoever he is, won’t be satisfied to admit himself beaten. If we keep quiet about this, and don’t tell him we’re on the track, he’s likely to give himself away sooner or later. Those people usually do.”

“Well, we’ll have to hope for the best,” said Brady. “But this chap, whoever he is, seems to be cleverer than some of those who have tried to make trouble for us in the past. That’s the reason I’m inclined to leave Parker out of this. He wasn’t clever at all; he left a trail a mile broad behind him when he tried to make trouble. This chap hasn’t been able to accomplish anything, but he hasn’t made it at all easy for us to find him out. It’s one thing to block one of their games, and that’s necessary, of course. But it’s another thing, and certainly quite as important, to make it impossible for them to try something else. This chap’s free to do anything that comes into his head now.”

“That’s perfectly true,” said Dick Merriwell, “but I don’t believe that he’ll be able to do much. We’re all on our guard now, and it ought to be possible to defeat any plans that he evolves. Keep your eyes open, of course, and if you see anything suspicious, let me know about it right away. We go to New York to-morrow night, as usual, to sleep there the night before the game.

“I don’t need to say what an important game this is. It settles the championship, and they’ve got Briggs ready to come back at us and try to beat us. I know that we know more about his pitching than we did last week, but you want to remember that he also knows a good deal more about our batters, and the style they have. That will help him, and so will the seasoning of a really important game. He’d never had that before, but he did surprisingly well, in view of that. In fact, I was surprised when we won that game, after Jim’s rough experience. We want him to be ready to pitch the game of his life on Saturday, with nothing to worry him and disturb him.”

“I’m ready to do my best,” said Jim. “I never felt better in my life than I do right now, and this afternoon, when I let out some steam with Taylor, my curves were breaking better than they have all season. I seemed to be able to put the ball just where I wanted it every time.”

“How about the captaincy next year?” said Brady. “I suppose it’s pretty well settled that Jim here is to get it? Carter isn’t going to run, and Jackson’s got the football job. I can’t think of any one else who’s in line for it.”

“You’re too modest, Bill,” said Jim, with a laugh. “What’s the matter with your being captain yourself? You’d make a better one than I ever would.”

But Brady only laughed.

“Me?” he said. “I’m not gunning for any trouble of that sort. It’s too much like work. I’d rather play under some one else and watch them struggling with all the worries of that job. Look at old Sherman. He worries about the team the whole time. I bet he’s lost ten pounds, and he’s been lying awake nights, planning out ways to make the team better.”

“Sherman’s a good captain,” said Dick Merriwell. “I’ll be well pleased if Phillips is elected, but I don’t take sides in that sort of thing. It’s for the team to choose the captain, and for me, after he’s chosen, to work with him to turn out the best possible team for Yale. That’s what Parker couldn’t seem to understand.”

“There’s a lot of things he hasn’t understood yet,” said Bill Brady grimly. “But I guess he’ll find them out before he’s much older, and I think he’s just about enough of a man to come out and admit that he’s been wrong when it’s brought home to him. He’s got a wrong start, but he isn’t such a bad fellow when you get right down to cases with him. It’s more a case of being foolish than anything else with him.”

“That’s what I thought,” said Dick. “I’m glad to hear you say that. He’s done good work for Yale already, and I hope he’ll do a lot more before he gets through. He’s the sort that ought to turn into a useful citizen, and a credit to the college.”

“We ought to get along without all this trouble between Yale men,” said Jim Phillips. “I hate to see it. It’s bad for the college, and it never does any one any good. I’m not looking for trouble here, and I’m going to do all I can to keep out of it hereafter.”